


Your Eyes Are Prettier Than What I Remember

by andicanthelpfallinginlovewithyou



Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Also Allura's surname is inspired by scandinavian surnames, Autistic!Keith, F/M, I dont know what I'm doing tbh, Iverson is a dick as always, Keith and Shiro are adopted brothers, Lance is cuban and a trans man, M/M, Pacific Rim AU, as much as i love Matt and Commander Holt they will not be in this work, everyone is trans actually, fight me, i am not good at it and I barely know how to wrote kissing, klance, maybe some Hunay, pidge is a trans girl, pls don't expect any smut, tags may change as story goes on, this is my first fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 12:45:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8980273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andicanthelpfallinginlovewithyou/pseuds/andicanthelpfallinginlovewithyou
Summary: Pacific Rim AULance is one of the two cadets that witness Nebula Striker's fall and possible retirement. Her pilots, Takashi Shirogane and Allura Alfordottir, are hospitalized, leaving the Castle of Lions without a point Jaeger. After failing to Drift with his best friend, Lance has no other choice but to partner up with his self-procclaimed rival. As one may imagine, it can be difficult to work with soomeone who is like fire to your water. Klance and maybe some Hunay. Mulit-chaptered fic with updates as often as possible. Chapters will modtly be short and fast-paced.





	1. Chapter 1

"Ugh, this blows." 

Lance slouched over, dragging his feet as Pidge and Hunk walked with him, away from the Drift simulator.

"So we lost the connection again!" Hunk said, patting him on the shoulder. "We'll get it eventually. Everyone does."

"But we've been working at it for nearly six weeks!" Lance whined. "If we don't get it by the time we graduate, I won't have a partner!"

"Don't be so dramatic," Pidge told him sharply. "There's always the Kwoon room. Maybe you and Hunk aren't a match."

"But we trust each other!"

"I know. You start out strong. You both trust each other implicitly, and that's important, but you also have to click. Maybe you're not in the similarity sweet-spot."

Lance slouched further. "I'm gonna go and watch Nebula's fight," he muttered, not waiting for his friends' answer as he sprinted away.

He found himself on the cliff overlooking the pacific ocean and sat down, watching the point Jaeger as she battled a violently purple Kaiju. 

Nebula Strike was possibly the oldest Jaeger in operation; she had made her debut nearly a decade before, when Lance was still collecting shells on Veradera beach. The pilots, Takashi Shirogane and Allura Alfordottir, were hotshots, rising up the ranks at the speed of light and amassing quite a kill count when doing so.

That was what made him want to be a pilot, more than anything.

He watched dreamily as Nebula primed her weapons, lunging and spinning faster than should have been possible, her electrified knuckles dancing with electricity and her bladed forearms gleaming fiercely in the setting sun. The Kaiju was only a little one, so he wasn't worried.

He had begun to zone out when he heard the crunch of steel and jerked up, watching in horror as one of Nebula's components was crushed in a larger Kaiju's maw. Nebula kept fighting, having killed the little one, but the larger one had them on their toes.

Eventually, the big one was slain, releasing one dying screech before collapsing. Nebula wasted no time in turning and struggling towards the shore. Lance was frozen as she collapsed a hundred yards or so shy, her legs still submerged.

The spell that had been cast over him suddenly broke, and he was flying down the steep path toward the beach before he could think, sprinting towards the prone head of the Jaeger.

He wasn't the first one to get there. There was a shape clambering up Nebula's cranium, but he had already opened the emergency hatch and vanished into the skull's confines before Lance could pinpoint who he was.

He scrambled to climb up the hatch as well, though not as deftly as the previous, and dropped inside. The emergency lights were on inside the cockpit, bright blue with alarms blaring and the control board covered in blinking alerts.

The pilots were both unconscious, hanging limply in their harnesses like rag dolls, their heads lolling. They wore suits that were both similar and different, artfully contrasting and complimenting each other. Allura's was mostly white and black, the joints and narrower parts half-striped with pastel blue and pink. Shirogane's was mostly black, but the simplicity of his suit complimented Allura's quite pleasantly.

Lance forced himself to move towards Allura, who was still dangling in her harness while the other boy was shouting at Shirogane to wake up. He clumsily pulled her free of her bindings, barely prepared to catch her as she fell on him.

He gently lowered her to the floor, gingerly removing her helmet and brushing her fluffy white hair away from her flushed, ocher-brown face. He only barely thought of checking her pulse before Shirogane awoke with a yell and scrambled to her side, pulling her into his arms. Lance could only watch the incredible show of emotion as he cradled her, trying to coax her into the waking world with quiet mutterings, gently rocking back and forth.

Beams of light blinded Lance as the emergency crew dropped down, forcing him and the other out onto the beach. The other disappeared as soon as Lance turned to talk to him, already storming away. He noticed that he wore a red and white cropped jacket, and his hair was cut in a deeply unfashionable mullet.

Lance's mouth soured. _Keith._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is desperate. Keith is not good at drifting. Chaos ensues.

Cadets!" Iverson shouted. "Fall in!" 

Lance sighed enormously and fell into step beside Pidge and Hunk. They ended up at the back of the group, so Hunk lifted her onto his shoulders. 

Iverson's mouth formed a thin line, his fingers drumming his clipboard. "As you know, Nebula Striker went down yesterday in a Kaiju-related accident. As Nebula is our point Jaeger, we need twice the rookies to fill in until she and her pilots recuperate. That means graduation is moved up to this week, and you have five days to find a Drift-Compatible partner, and I know some of you," He eyed Lance at this. "Will have more difficulty than others. Those of you who have a potential partner, or six, in Carter's case, may head straight to the Drift simulator. Those of you who do not will spend the day in the Kwoon room whether you like it or not. Dismissed." 

Lance immediately turned to Pidge and Hunk. "You two should drift." 

They turned to him in perfect sync. "Why?" Hunk asked.

"Don't ask, just go!" he insisted. "Hunk, I promise: I'll find someone like you." 

"I can't believe you're quoting Adele at me. You suck." 

"Go go go!" Lance insisted, playfully shoving Hunk before marching towards the Kwoon room. 

It was a wide open space, with a sunken, mat-floored pit in the centre of the room. The only weapons there were staffs, so Lance had become very well acquainted with them.   
The combat director, Master Fuente, had planted herself in the centre of the sparring ring. "Cadets! As you know, we will be starting with our best fighters and working our way back! Keith Kogane, front and centre!" 

The mullet-headed nightmare stepped out of line and hopped into the ring, taking the staff offered to him. Lance leaned against the wall, mentally tallying the number of people in the room. He groaned; in all likelihood, he wouldn't be getting to his dorm until after light's out. 

His mind wandered as he watched the matches. Keith was extremely proficient with a staff, and all his opponents were slammed against the ground in less than two minutes. He briefly wondered what it might be like if they were partners. 

He didn't think he could stand it. Between the constant clash of opinions and the rivalry, they probably wouldn't be capable of a successful Drift.

Still, if he wasn't a match for Keith, he probably wasn't a match for anyone. 

***********

"Lance Pérez!" 

Lance jumped, stumbling down the the pit. Most of the other cadets had already faced off with Keith, and many of them sported painful-looking bruises. 

He took the staff that Master Fuente offered him, crouching in a defensive stance that was more than a muscle memory. 

Keith's eyes widened very slightly, as if in recognition, but the next moment they were neutrally cool, surveying him with a critical glare. Lance struck first, unwilling to wait for him.

He yelped as his knee was jabbed, going down hard on the mats. He coughed uncomfortably, trying to catch his breath. 

Master Fuente closed her fingers around his bicep in an iron grip and urged him away. "Get back in line, Cadet-" 

"No. Give him another chance," Keith said, barely out of breath. Master Fuente fixed him with a cool glare before nodding, standing back once more. 

Lance waited for Keith to strike, ducking out of the way. He was fast, but Keith had tank-like strength on his side, and a strategic mind. 

_If he can be strategic, then so can I._

Lance ducked out of the way of Keith's strikes with ease, his flexibility helping out with central blows. Finally, he spotted a gap in Keith's defense, and had his staff against his chest before he could blink. 

Keith looked down at the staff with a perplexed sort of interest, and Lance set the staff across his shoulders across his shoulders. "One-one." 

Keith lunged forward, a new kind of determination in his eyes. Lance could barely dodge all the strikes that he was putting out, but still managed to get his staff against Keith's neck. "Two-one." 

He was caught up in the glory of beating the unbeatable, when he suddenly landed back-first on the mats with a staff poised over his throat. "Two-two," Keith said, his hairline dotted with sweat, his face flushed, his chest heaving from lost breath. 

Master Fuente stepped in, taking their staffs. "I've seen enough. Both of you, get to the Drift simulator and work on your bond. I expect you to be able to pilot a Jaeger within the week." 

Lance jumped to his feet and followed Keith, unwilling to risk Fuente's temper. It was a while before he summoned the will to speak. 

"How's Shirogane?" 

"Huh?" Keith didn't look back. 

"Shirogane, the pilot who crashed yesterday. You seemed really close." 

"Oh, Shiro," Keith realized. "He's recovering. They both are." 

"Good. That's good." Lance was somewhat preoccupied with wondering whether or not he remembered how to avoid chasing the R.A.B.I.T.. He wondered if Pidge and Hunk had managed to Drift or not. 

***********

The Drift simulator was designed after the first Jaeger was manufactured, in order to test the neural bond between potential pilots. It mainly consisted of a computer and two pods angled back-to-back. The only other person there was a technician with a cut, round nose, voluminous curls, and cool black skin.

Lance felt his heart thump in his chest as the tech gently attached the electrodes to his temples. No matter how many times he Drifted, the shared mind-space was always unsettling with new people. He breath in deeply and laid back as the tech moved on to Keith. He found that focusing on the water-damaged ceiling did not help with calming him. 

Distantly, he heard the tech count down as she initiated the neural handshake. He squeezed his eyes shut as he was plunged into the Drift.

Apparently, the Drift was different for everyone; for him, it was Varadero beach, for Hunk, it was a thick Pacific Island forest, where he had spent his childhood on Hawaii. For Keith, it was a desert. Flat, yellow sand-scape stretched on as far as the eye could see. Just before infinity, however, was a rickety shack that was barely bigger than a cadet's dorm room. 

Keith was waiting in front of the shack, his arms crossed. Lance moved towards him, willful intent making his strides stronger, faster. 

"Ready?" he asked, holding out his hand. 

Keith nodded, taking his hand. 

Lance gasped breathily at the uncontrolled flow of memories that flooded past his mind's eye, and he resisted the urge to study them closely, instead allowing them to flow. 

Something was weakening. The flow wasn't as fast, or as strong. Lance began to breathe faster, wondering if it was him, if it was always going to be him-

And suddenly he wasn't in the drift anymore. He was watching a television, an old clunky one that hadn't seen this side of the century. 

There was a news broadcast focusing on a Kaiju attack, and Lance somehow knew that someone important was in the Jaeger. Someone he loved. Two someones he loved.

When he watched the Jaeger go down, her head crushed by the Kaiju's clawed hands, panic laced through his heart, following by rage, followed by tear-jerking agony. He screamed and cried and smashed his chubby little fists against the linoleum floor, kicking and cursing when a pair of strong arms gently wrapped around him, one pair coppery-brown and the other almost as pale as his own. 

Lance distinctly remembered that his skin could not be described as pale. 

He jerked out of the neural handshake, leaning out of the pod with stunted shudders and ragged gasps. 

"The handshake failed, Kogane chased the R.A.B.I.T.-" 

Keith shouted in anger and ripped the pulse readers off of his forehead, pushing past personnel and medical support as he stumbled out of the pod and stormed away. 

Leftover panic and concern from the memory had Lance clambering from the pod. He ignored the technician shouting at him to stay put and scrambled after Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must confess that this was written on my phone, so there may be typos.


	3. Chapter 3

It was an hour or so before he found him, stewing in a storm cloud of irritation beside Shirogane. 

The latter was still unconscious, his hand limply stretched out over the edge of the bed, reaching toward Allura in the next bed. Their ghost-drift was incredibly strong, even when unconscious. 

Lance quietly sat down on Shirogane's other side, twisting his fingers in his lap. It was a while before he could speak. "I'm sorry." 

Keith twitched, but said nothing. He pulled a purple silicon stim-toy from under his shirt and put it in his mouth.

"About your parents. I saw, in the memory." 

Keith hunched over further, his eyes hidden by his fringe. 

"Would you like me to leave?" 

Keith shook his head. 

Lance nodded to himself and leaned back in his chair. His brother sometimes shut down too, so he sat quietly until Keith was ready. 

After twenty minutes, Keith sighed and roughly carded his fingers through his black hair, straightening up. His eyes were red. 

"That happens every time I Drift," he said bitterly. "I wonder if there's something wrong with me." 

Lance leaned forward. "Is it always that memory?" 

"Yeah. It's stupid: I hate letting other people know that about me. They always pity me. I hate it." 

"I don't pity you."

Keith looked at him with a flat gaze. "Obviously you do." His voice was thick.

Lance shook his head. "I don't. If you don't want to talk about it, then I won't force you to. If it doesn't affect your work, then it won't affect mine either." Lance stood and walked to Keith's side. "I'm your partner, but you deserve your privacy. I will never go digging, and I will never pity you. Okay?" 

Keith sniffled deeply, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes. "O-Okay." 

Lance smiled, patting him on the shoulder. "Good. Now come on. No sense in wasting the five days we have. Let's try again." 

Keith sniffed again and nodded, his voice stronger now, "Okay."

************

Lance gasped as if he was drowning when the two of them fell out of the drift. He panted, the mental exertion starting to lace its way into his muscles. He felt trembly and weak. 

They had gotten stuck at the memories again. That much he knew. That, and that was the sixth tome they had failed since initial launch. He heard Keith bang his fist against his leg with a frustrated groan. 

"Again," Lance wheezed, waving to the operator. "One more time." He barely had a plan at this time, but he swore that he would Drift with Keith if it killed him.

The tech pressed her mouth into a thin line before nodding, plunging them back into the Drift. 

Lance located Keith immediately, and ran towards him. "You need to be distracted from the memories. Now, I'm going to hate as much as you will, but I is it okay if I kiss you?" 

Keith's eyes widened. "Uh, all right, I guess- mmph!" 

Quashing the funny feeling in his stomach, Lance lunged forward and pulled him into a hard kiss, his hands over his cheeks and his nose brushing his cheekbone.  
He couldn't help but tense as the memories flew past, but he couldn't bring himself to focus on anything else but Keith's mouth against his own. 

He woke suddenly with a hoarse gasp, eyes blown wide and subtly aware of something scarlet quietly sitting in the back of his mind. The scarlet mass quivered as he prodded it. 

"Neural handshake is a success, 100% compatibility!" the tech called, her fingers dancing over the controls. 

Lance swung his legs out of the pod and landed on the floor, the sound amplified by Keith landing at the same moment. They stared at each other, and the red shape in the back of his mind hummed. Keith's pupils were blown so wide that there was hardly any violet left to see. Lance distantly wondered if they had always been so pretty.

The tech materialized between them, and Lance felt somewhat wanting when he could no longer see Keith. "How do you feel?" she asked. 

He and Keith stepped to the left in synch, watching each other closely. Lance made the decision to speak on his own. 

"Weird," he said. 

"Weird," Keith agreed. 

The tech made a note on her tablet. "Good. Back to your pods," she told them, ushering them back into position. She took her place at the computer. "Initiating separation in three, two, one." She flipped the purple switch on her console.

Lance and Keith both gasped as the connection was severed. Lance curled over his core, silently keening as the warm presence in his mind ebbed. 

The tech looked up at Iverson, who stood in the doorway menacingly. "100% compatibility, sir. The AI matched them with Cobalt Blaze." 

Iverson nodded, eyeing the both of them as they climbed out of their pods. "Come, cadets. It's time to meet your Jaeger."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not experienced in writing telepathic bonds.  
> Also, kissing!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance meet their Jaeger and are somewhat unimpressed. Ghost-Drifting makes an appearance. Lance is internally screaming.

"Cobalt Blaze," Coran introduced proudly. 

Lance crossed his arms and looked at the mecha with a slight frown. 

The Jaeger was a scrapper. Unpainted, scratched up and dinged, she looked like she hadn't seen any action since he was in diapers. Her pistons hissed and groaned as tiny specks of mechanics worked on getting her back in shape. 

"She'll have a new coat of paint in a day or so, of course," Coran told them, leading them to an industrial elevator. As the elevator zipped upwards, he kept talking. "She's Nebula's sister, and the poor thing hasn't been out before the fall of Iceland. She was operational back when we still called you paladins!" 

"If it's been out of commission that long, how will it work?" Keith asked, leaning out of the basket to peer at Cobalt. 

Coran pulled him back inside to prevent him from being decapitated. "Not out of commission. And before all these digital Jaegers came into fashion, these clunkers could last us thirty years with Class Seven Kaiju every other week. Most new pilots prefer digital, however. Digitals are lighter, faster, and cheaper to manufacture, but their make is often subpar and they may only make it to fifteen years if we're lucky. Cobalt and Nebula are two of the last three clunkers still operational." 

"So, we're driving an antique?" Lance asked, one eyebrow quirking upwards.

Coran frowned and cuffed him on the back of his head. "Have respect for the veterans," he said sharply. 

"What's the third?" Keith asked. 

"Amber Tango. She may be getting some pilots today as well." 

"Do you know who the pilots are?" 

"Oh, no, I never do," Coran said, seeming unbothered. The elevator halted, letting them out onto a catwalk around Cobalt's head. 

Up close, her broad and clunky frame was more pronounced than ever. Her head was nestled snugly between her shoulders, which were incredibly broad. Her visor was a faded purple, and Lance could see the remnants of a snarling mouth with animalistic teeth. 

Coran led the two of them to the back of the head, leading them inside the cockpit.  
Lance saw Keith wince. The inside of the cockpit looked like something you would at the bottom of the ocean. Everything seemed to be corroded or covered in battery acid. 

Coran moved through the tangle of cables and powered up the shared console. "My grandfather designed the clunker triplets," he said. "I grew up helping maintain them." 

Keith walked to Coran's side, still curious despite his caution. "Does it work like the simulators?" 

"Yes, that's the one thing they did keep when transitioning from analog to digital," Coran replied. "If you were good at the simulators, then you'll be good at this." 

Lance winced, remembering vividly how he had crashed the simulator more than once. 

Without realizing it, he had gravitated to the console and looked over the controls, recognizing a few buttons and levers but blanking on most. A spike of anxiety shot through him. 

He jumped as he felt something brush his mind, but stilled as he recognized Keith. Ghost-Drifting was practically a guarantee for anyone who had drifted together even once, but it was still strange to feel someone on more planes than one.

The caresses continued, sending soft touches of comfort. Lance looked at back the driving platforms, only discernible from each other by the glowing footpads. Coran was speaking with Iverson in the doorway. Small, disjointed whispers gently told him that driving was all that mattered.

"I know," he said quietly. 

Keith gingerly placed his hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. "I'll help you every step of the way, okay?" 

Lance nodded shakily. "Yeah." 

**********

After a rushed goodbye to Coran, Iverson led the two of them a new room. It looked like the Kwoon room, with matted floors and bare wooden support beams, but it lacked the sparring pit and the general atmosphere of Satan's personal gladiator ring. 

"Here is where you will train," Iverson stated flatly. "You will train until you both can meet the expectations set by Shirogane and Alfordottir." 

Keith looked around, and Lance saw him eyeing the sparring swords. 

"Until such time as you have accomplished this, all of your time save pilot training and meals will be spent here." With a final sneer, Iverson turned and left. 

Lance trotted over to the long-range rifles and picked up one that was extremely similar to what he was used to practicing with. "What's your specialty?" 

"Short-range. Usually something pointy," Keith answered bluntly.

Lance laughed sharply and turned to see Keith shrugging off his jacket. He looked around once before seeing a spare closet and making for it. "I'm just going to change." 

"M'kay." Lance pulled off his shirt, figuring that Keith already knew that he was trans from his memories, and walked to his bag where he had left it at the door. 

The door to the closet opened just as he shrugged on his sports bra. He turned to see Keith yelp and shut the door again. When he didn't come out after five minutes, Lance meandered over and rapped on the door. 

"Keith, you okay in there?" 

"I'm fine!" 

"Well, we can't really train with you in there. Do you want to come out?" 

He stepped back as the door creaked slowly open. Keith emerged with his head down. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to walk in on you," he said, slurring his words together in his haste. He began to tremble.

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" Lance said. "I don't care if you see me with my shirt off." 

Keith nodded, still looking down. "Sorry," he said again. "It's just that I hate people seeing my binder, and I assumed you'd feel the same way." He ducked his head lower. "Sorry."

Lance nodded. "That's okay. You don't have to feel bad. Let's train, all right?" 

Keith nodded jerkily and stalked over to the middle of the room, snatching a staff from the stand. 

Lance joined him with a staff of his own, lunging forward and aiming for his knee. 

His staff was knocked away with a loud crack of wood on wood. Keith's staff narrowly missed his cheek, and only a well-timed jump backwards saved him from a nasty bruise on his arm. 

Lance caught him in a standoff of strength, pushing hard against him. For a moment, it looked like he might win, but Keith hooked his elbow around his staff and dropped down, placing his boot against his lower stomach and pushing. 

Lance landed on his back with a yelp and scrambled to get up. Keith rolled to his feet, more composed than ever. 

"How are you so good at this?" Lance panted, glad he had taken off his binder.  
Keith shrugged. "Shiro used to spar with me," he replied. "You changed into a sports bra, right?" 

Lance nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I did." He struck like a viper and managed to take Keith by surprise, hooking his staff behind his knees and pushing down on his shoulder. 

Keith blew a lock of his hair out of his eyes, sitting up and carding his fingers through his hair and tying it up in a low tail. 

Lance's heart thumped inexplicably as Keith stood, stretching and twirling his staff. In fact, he was so entranced that Keith had no trouble in body-slamming him to the ground. 

Keith stood over him with a sour look. "You have to take this seriously," he said sharply. 

"Sorry," Lance replied. "Got distracted." 

"Yeah. I could tell." Keith tapped his temple. "Someone on your mind?" 

Lance flushed and sat up, internally screaming to cover up the answer. "Yeah." He stood and gripped his staff hard, quashing the distracting feelings in his stomach. 

Keith twisted and flipped him over his shoulder. "Whoever's on your mind has quite the grip on you," he said, irritated now.

Lance later wondered if he imagined the bite of hurt to his words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was kind of hard to write bc I'm shit at writing fights. But, I tried to introduce Keith and Lance as trans as realistically as possible.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has pre-driver anxiety and Keith tries his best to be supportive. Amber Tango makes an appearance, as does Nebula Striker.

Lance struggled to control his breathing as Keith and him marched to the launch room. 

Keith halted him with a hand on his shoulder, his fingers pressing against his soft canvas jacket. 

Lance looked to him and raised his eyebrows. 

"Calm down. We can handle it." 

Lance nodded and kept walking, suiting up in record time and plugging himself into Cobalt's cockpit. Keith followed silently and did the same, putting on his helmet with a soft hiss. 

With a gasp, Lance was plunged into the Drift, wasting no time in walking over to Keith and kissing him, the confusing stirs in his belly mixing with a thunderstorm of anxiety.

He resurfaced as Cobalt's head dropped down to connect with the body. Keith's consciousness took up an equal space in his head as his own, and after a moment of hesitancy, it reached out and brushed against Lance with a stroke of comfort. 

Lance looked to Keith, only to see that Keith was tapping the console. 

_**Thanks.** _

Keith turned to him and smiled warmly. "Ready?" 

Lance nodded. 

**********

Cobalt Blaze landed in the coast with a solid thump that the pilots felt in their bones. 

_"Testing comms, one-two, one-two, Cobalt Blaze, do you read me?"_ Coran's face took up a small square on the windshield.

"Affirmative," Keith replied, his voice calm but his presence jumpy. 

_"Excellent. Today is for testing only. Castle is sending another clunker your way, stand-by."_ The comms clicked off. 

Lance reached forward and pressed the comm button again. "Castle, will this clunker be Amber Tango?"

_"Affirmative, with pilots Katie Holt and Hunk Kealoha. Stand-by."_

Lance and Keith watched in awe as a new Jaeger was ferried to the coast and dropped into the water. 

The clunker straightened up from her landing stance. She was about the same size and build as Nebula and Cobalt, and her colour scheme was green and yellow. With a resounding crack, her knuckles began to glow with green electricity. From her hip hung a massive gatling gun. 

_"This is Amber Tango."_ Pidge's floated confidently through the comms. Her face appeared below Coran's, her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed. Hunk's face appeared a moment later, his jaw set and his smile wide.

"Pidge! Hunk!" Lance yelled. He would have jumped for joy, but his feet were attacked to the platform. "You guys drifted!" 

_"And you found a partner! Let's see them!"_ Hunk sounded just as confident as Pidge.

Lance nodded to Keith, who looked slightly green. He pressed the button on his console and cleared his throat. "Keith Kogane here." 

Hunk whooped. _"You mean you finally got over that dumb rivalry thing?"_

Lance flushed with embarrassment. He tried to ignore the inquisitive prodding in his head. "Yep. Now we're a team." 

Pidge laughed. _"I have so many questions-"_

 _"All right, pilots,"_ Coran said sharply. _"Chit-chat later. I want you to practice the Phoenix formation. Both Jaegers have long-range and short-range capacity, so rearrange yourselves in every way possible. Nebula was our point because she was tough and short-range only. Tango, take point first. Show us what you've got."_

Tango moved slowly through the water until Cobalt was at her flank, priming her knuckles with a satisfying crackle. 

_"Good, but work on your speed. We aim to rival our digitals."_

Tango dropped to a sprinter's stance and ran, crashing through the water with astonishing agility. She leapt nearly two hundred yards in the air before landing in the surf with a crash. 

Staticky clapping clouded the comms for a moment. _"Bravo!"_ Coran cheered. _"Cobalt, let's see your speed."_

Keith and Lance nodded to each other once before setting off in a sprint, Keith's running technique bleeding into Lance's form. Thinking together, they drew the sword at their disposal and swung, skidded to a stop in deeper water. 

_"Good work, Cobalt, but not as fast as Tango. Tango will be our immediate backup, Cobalt will be long-range support."_ Coran paused as if listening to something the pilots couldn't hear. _"Really? Are they ready?"_ He paused again. _"All right. Pilots, get ready to meet your point! Nebula is back in the field!"_

Keith and Lance cheered loudly before catching themselves, Lance clasping his hands over his mouth in embarrassment.  
Over the cliff, they could see the Jaeger hanging from four helicopters. She landed in the water with a massive crash, straightening up with the grace and dignity of a goddess. 

Lance dimly heard Pidge say, _"Holy shit."_

_Holy shit indeed._

A new voice joined the comms: _"Hello, Paladins."_ Even with the archaic name, Lance thought it felt right. He didn't have to look at Keith to know he felt the same. 

_"Allura, Shiro, these are our new pilots. Amber Tango has Pidge and Hunk, and Cobalt Blaze has Lance and Keith."_

_"Good to meet you all,"_ Shiro said, his voice slightly thin. _"Let's get in position. Tango, flank left. Cobalt, flank right. Arrowhead formation."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunay will appear next chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of training, and a surprise Kaiju attack. Shay and Rax also appear. Rax is unfriendly and Hunk has a crush.

Lance felt like crying with happiness after he and Keith scooped themselves out of the cockpit. They could barely stand long enough to get their suits off and get to the cantina, and they barely made it. Hunk and Pidge were in better shape than they were, but only by a little.

Shiro took pity on them and brought their dinner to them, sitting down next to Allura. She rested her head against his shoulder as she ate. 

Coran joined them not a moment later, loudly dropping his plate on the table. "Good to see the triplets back in the field!" he said jovially. "Isn't that right, Allura?"

"Mm?" She lifted her head briefly but went back to eating. 

Unbothered by the lack of enthusiasm, Coran slapped a wad of paperwork on the table. "I'm filing a request to reconfigure Team Voltron," he said conversationally. 

Lance and Keith jerked upwards. "The Jaegers that defended the Eastern coast?" Keith demanded. 

Coran nodded. "In a way. Team Voltron has always been limited to these three Jaegers, and after the paladins retired, only Nebula managed to get new ones. With a new generation of paladins, I think Team Voltron could be of use once more."  
"Would that change much of our normal routine?" Shiro asked. 

Coran shrugged. "Most of your time would be spent together in training, and relocation would drop to zero. And-" 

"Woah, who're they?" Lance asked, his voice cracking. The rest of the table looked around, following the pair with creepily attentive gazes. 

He guessed that they must be siblings; the pilots shared similarly broad physiques with broad shoulders and muscly arms. Their hair was similar as well, both wavy, but the brother seemed to have a slightly shorter style. The sister wore thick metal loops in her ears, and their suits were both sepia-toned grey and green. 

"Quit staring, all of you," Coran said sharply, swatting Allura on the shoulder. "You're like sharks." 

"Who are they?" 

"Back-up from the Balmeran base. I believe the brother is Rax, and the sister is Shay. They drive Fernweh Dusk," Coran replied. "The General must have requested someone to assist." 

Pidge cackled and swatted Hunk on the arm. "Hunk has a crush!" she sang. "Hunk has a _cruuuush!_ "

Hunk yelped and grabbed her in a headlock, muffling her shouts. "I do not!" 

Lance saw no point in not joining in. "Yes you do!" he crowed, elbowing him in the ribs. 

"I do not!" he hissed. "She's just a person whom I admire very much." 

"You know her?" Keith asked, apparently deciding that the present conversation was more interesting than food. 

"Nah," Pidge replied, having pried herself out of the headlock. "He's been following Fernweh's exploits very closely." 

"They have this move where they rip off the Kaiju's legs!" Hunk said excitedly, unable to contain himself. "Oh, shit, they're coming over here. Be cool!" 

Pidge and Lance immediately began to argue violently over whether Hunk had a chance with Shay, while Shiro attempted to defuse the situation.

Allura's voice rose over the squabbles and pained noises, like a hymn of grace: "Shay, Rax, come and sit with us!" 

Shay perked up and walked over happily, but Rax seemed to be less excited, hanging back like a grumpy, distrustful shadow. 

They dropped their trays onto the table and sat down next to Shiro and Allura.  
Shay held out her hand to the rest of the paladins. "I'm Shay Pierre. This is my brother Rax." 

Lance leaned over and shook her hand. "Good to meet you, Shay. We look forward to working with you. I know Hunk is really looking forward to it." He pointed to Hunk at his, dodging a well-aimed punch.

Shay turned to Hunk. "We look forward to working with you as well!" she said warmly. Her way of speech suggested that English was not her first, second or third language. 

Hunk flushed and managed to stutter out a stunted 'thank-you'. 

Allura yawned widely. "I'm tired. Coran, I'll make up my training tomorrow." 

Coran nodded. "You both should rest. I doubt you've recovered from all of the damage, even if Nebula did." 

Shiro nodded and stood. "I'll go with her and get her to bed," he promised. 

Allura sleepily held her arms out and shook a lock of hair out of her eyes. "Carry me," she mumbled, eyes barely open. 

Shiro nodded and scooped her onto his back, holding onto her knees as she looped her arms around his neck. 

Lance watched them with a vacant smile on his face. "Why don't you carry me around when I'm tired, Keith?" he asked playfully. 

Keith gave him a flat look and deadpanned, "Because your version of tired means giving up after five minutes of exercising." 

Pidge laughed maniacally. "I wish I was Keith's friend last week!" she crowed. 

"So, you two are from the Balmeran base?" Hunk asked, his voice raised slightly over Pidge's shrill cackle. "I haven't ever been. What's it like?" 

"Very mild," Shay replied. "The base itself is on the edge of a mountain range and bordered by the ocean, so it's very rocky." 

"The food's better there," Rax spoke for the first time since being invited over. He didn't seem very friendly. He sighed and stood. "I'm going to go and train." 

Lance watched him go with a somewhat skeptical expression. "What's his problem?" 

"He's upset to have left home," Shay replied. "Our family is there. He doesn't like being where he's not needed." She frowned very slightly. "I don't much like it either." 

Coran reached over and patted her gently on the arm. "You'll both be able to go home as soon as Shiro and Allura recover. They took a big risk with launch today, and so soon after the accident. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a Kaiju. The rookies will get a good kick out of it." 

Shay laughed heartily, while Lance, Keith, Hunk and Pidge bowed their heads towards their food. 

**********

Lance tossed and turned in his bed, blinking uselessly in the dark. This part of the base was all concrete and iron bracing, as he felt when his bare feet swung to the floor. 

He paused to pull on a thin shirt and a pair of drawstring pants before venturing out of his room. He could feel the bond between him and Keith, could see it like a living tendon. His partner was still asleep.

He strode down the hall silently, trotting up the metal-grating stairs that were slick with condensation. He pushed open the service-access door to the roof and ran to the edge, looking over the raging ocean. His fingers tugged at the tag chain around his neck and pulled the metal plates out from under his shirt. 

The tags gleamed dully in the moonlight, highlighting his name and rank. He looked back at the line where the sea and the sky met, feelings of fear and inadequacy roiling in his gut. 

_What if we're not good enough? What if the Kaiju kill me? What if they kill Keith?_

"Hey." 

Lance jerked around, his heart rate spiking before he saw Keith walking towards him. 

"You worry really loud," Keith told him, taking his place at his side. "The Kaiju won't get us."

"How can you be sure?" 

Keith placed his hand on Lance's shoulder, still looking out to the sea. "Because you have a family, and I will do everything I can to ensure that they never have to lose you, like I lost mine."

Lance nodded and looked down. "Do you really believe that we can beat the Kaiju? That this war will ever be over?" 

"It doesn't matter what I believe. I will only think of what will get me through the day. What do you believe?" 

Lance bit his lip and looked to Keith. His black hair fluttered in the wind, and the mullet didn't look half as bad as it used to. In fact, Keith was pulling it off. 

_Dammit._

"What?" Keith turned to him. The bond was growing stronger by the minute, and he must have heard the sharply-thought swear. 

"I want to kiss you. For real this time, not as a distraction." Lance rubbed his arms nervously. 

Keith smiled and moved closer. "So do I," he whispered, standing on his toes to press his lips against Lance's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this. Also, Pierre means stone, which I thought was fitting, and Fernweh means a lust for travel, to see new places. I chose Dusk because of Shay's wish to see the sunset. I doubt I'll write any actual betrayal on Rax's part, so for the most part he'll just be kind of grumpy and standoffish.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cobalt and Tango face their first Kaiju attack with Fernweh running point.

_"Alert, alert, Kaiju signature incoming. All pilots report to the Lion's Den, ASAP."_

Keith and Lance threw down their staffs and scrambled into the hallway, sprinting towards the hangar. Once their feet hit slick cement, they sprinted up the stairs leading to the Lion's Den, Coran's command centre.

They were the second team there, after Shiro and Allura. Coran was working at the computer, his brow furrowed. 

"Paladins, the readings tell us of a class six Kaiju heading towards the coastline, and it will reach the city in less than two hours." He swiped the hologram of the Kaiju to the larger computer. "Codename Hammerhead. Shiro and Allura, stay put. Fernweh Dusk, run point. Amber Tango, stay close to the city. Cobalt Blaze, run flank for Dusk. Move out!" 

The entire journey from the Den to the cockpit blurred together, for Lance and Keith both. They initiated the drift in record time, and faced the coastline with a terrified determination. 

The Kaiju looked like a bipedal hammerhead shark, with a flat, pick-ax shaped head and long, rope-like arms. It moved like a monster that Lance remembered seeing in one of Keith's nightmares, with strange, omniscient confidence. Its hands were clawed with giant sickles. Its tail was like a scorpion. 

In position behind Fernweh Dusk, Lance had trouble controlling his shaking. He armed the automatic rifle that Cobalt was blessed with, hitching it up to his shoulder.

"I'll let you take the lead on this one," Keith said, his voice slightly thin. 

"Nothing to it," Lance replied, following the Kaiju with his crosshairs and firing once. The bolt struck its armoured chest. 

It was more pissed off than injured. 

It looked directly at Cobalt and seemed about to charge, but Fernweh intercepted and latched onto its leg, ripping it clean off. She did the same with the other leg and crushed its skull in her hands for good measure. 

_"Holy fucking shit."_

_"Hammerhead is taken care of, Castle,"_ Rax's voice crackled over the comm system. _"Awaiting further orders."_

_"Good job, Fernweh. Start making your way back-"_

_"There's something incoming!"_ Hunk shouted. 

Only a traveling V in the water signalled the Kaiju erupting from the waves. This one had wings and a giant three-lipped maw, that which clamped onto Fernweh's shoulder. Shay's and Rax's shouts of pain pierced through the frozen silence of the other paladins. 

_"Goddamn rookies- HELP US!"_

Keith and Lance were the first to act, sprinting towards Fernweh with the sword drawn. 

The Kaiju turned and roared, using Fernweh as a springboard and slamming into Cobalt. The Jaeger went down under the waves, a clawed foot weighing down her chest. The alarms began to sound as the Kaiju's foot crumpled the chest plate and cracked the protective casing around the analog reactor. 

"Keith, Keith, KEITH!" Lance shouted, feeling as though his chest was being crushed. 

A flood of panic sparked through the bond from Keith, and Lance allowed his arm to be guided, to slash through the Kaiju's leg. 

"Get up, get up, get up!" Keith shouted, urging them upwards. 

They emerged from the waves to see Amber Tango driving their electrified fist clean through the Kaiju's chest. The monster screeched one last time and fell backwards, crashing into the surf with a massive smack. 

Amber Tango lowered her fists. Over the comms, Pidge's and Hunk's twin sighs rustled. _"Second target has been killed, Castle. Fernweh and possibly Cobalt require repairs and medical assistance."_

Lance was starting to feel woozy. Keith was leaning heavily on the console, coughing painfully. 

_"Understood, Tango. Sending support now. Hang in there."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's super short, sorry. It may take a while to write the next one.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladins (sans shiro and allura) meet Rolo and Nyma, Castle'/ mathematician and Kaiju zoologist.

Lance and Keith were ejected from the infirmary with a bottle of pain relievers each and instructions not to bind for the next two weeks as their bruised ribs healed. 

Pidge and Hunk were in the lab, a large lecture hall that was split literally down the middle. One side was dedicated to Kaiju insides; Lance could feel Keith squirming at the giant jar of mucus prominently displayed on the desk. The other side was covered in mathematical equations that neither of them could begin to understand. 

Pidge was perched upon a ladder, trying to get closer to an equation on the second layer of blackboards. Hunk was half-listening to the mathematician and half watching Pidge in case she fell. He looked up and waved to Keith and Lance. 

The mathematician looked up, his eyebrows raising almost imperceptibly. He had a flat mop of pale hair under a dark beanie and wore a loose tank and a sleeveless jacket. His skin was a cool brown, a shade or three darker than Pidge's; his arms were covered in tattoos. His gaze shifted to Keith, and one eyebrow raised. Keith slipped his hand into Lance's, his eyes fixed on the highest equations.

"You must be Cobalt's pilots!" he said warmly, picking his way forward through the refuse. "I'm Rolo." 

"Nice to meet you," Lance replied, shaking his hand. "What's all this?" 

"Mathematical equations predicting the next Kaiju attack," Keith supplied. 

"Yup," Rolo nodded, smiling. "Numbers are the closest that we may get to the writings of God." 

A high-pitched caw of laughter erupted from behind a tank of formaldehyde. A woman with long, thick dreadlocks the colour of mahogany, thick charcoal eyeliner, fuchsia irises and skin the same shade as Rolo's picked her way around the mess of jars and tubes on the floor. "He uses that one every time," she laughed, carrying a huge box of . . . something. She dropped it on their shared table. 

"No Kaiju guts on that table, Nyma!" Rolo said sharply. Nyma made a face at hin, picking up the box and setting it on the floor. 

"So when's the next event?" Lance asked, wandering over to stand beside Hunk. Keith came to follow him a few seconds later. 

"Sooner than we'd like," Rolo replied, sitting on his table. He picked up a laser-pointer and directed the beam towards the topmost equation. "That's a relativity problem. The next double event wasn't meant to show up until next month; in fact, there wasn't supposed to be any Kaiju at all until next next week. So, I had to refigure the equation. The next event will occur in three days, midday-ish." 

"So, we aren't going home anytime soon," a new voice said. Lance and Keith looked to the back entrance, at the crest of the amphitheatre. Rax and Shay stood in the door. 

Nyma came around her tanks of body parts and saluted casually. "Pilots, it's good to see you," she said cordially. "What brings you to our lab?" 

"We were told the other pilots would be here," Shay replied, walking over to sit down beside Hunk. Rax remained standing at the bottom of the stairs. "And I thought it wouldn't be so bad to socialize a bit." She looked to the equations on the board and raised her eyebrows. "What class will the next event be?" 

Rolo shone his pointer to the probability equations next to the relativity problem. "Class Six to Eight, depending on how spiteful they are," he said sardonically, casting a glance Nyma's way.

She crossed her arms and raised one eyebrow. "Mock me all you want, Rolo, but my studies show that these creatures are intelligent." 

That seemed to interest Pidge greatly. "How intelligent?" she asked. "Intelligent as in creation-of-tools intelligent?" 

Nyma pushed a tank over to where the brunt of them were standing, her muscles straining with the sheer mass of the tank. Inside, the mass of tissue looked like a brain, if a brain was chopped up and served as an entree. 

"More like discovering-the-atomic-theory intelligent," she replied. "The Kaiju are so large that they require two brains to move around. The frontal cortex," She tapped the glass over the aforementioned area. "Is where decision-making occurs, as well as self-awareness. These creatures have the capacity for complex decision-making and strategy, just like us. Perhaps to a larger degree. However, they've been getting smarter and smarter, just the same as getting bigger. They underestimated us, and now their goal, whatever it is, is delayed."

"So, if they're so intelligent, why haven't they made efforts to disrupt any patterns to their attacks?" Keith asked, leaning forward. 

Rolo stood, booting up the shared computer. The display showed a digital recreation of the portal, appearing much like an elongated hourglass. "They don't decide how often to send soldiers," he explained. "The Pass does. Whenever something goes through it, the Pass shudders or collapses in on itself. So far, the sheer amount of energy has always found a way to maintain the Pass between our worlds. In the beginning, the Kaiju waited until the Pass was open, until it completely repaired itself. Of course, they've realized that they can cut it closer and closer. Soon, they'll start breaking through the blockages without hesitation to get to this world." 

"Aha!" Nyma said suddenly. "So you do agree with me!" 

"Any gerbil can take shortcuts, Nyma," Rolo replied shortly. "Eventually, the path of the least resistance will win out against survival instinct, no matter the animal." 

**********

Lance lay awake in his cement- and iron-structure room. He sighed to himself, Rolo's and Nyma's voices rolling around in his head. He grunted as he sat up, laying one hand against his aching chest. His feet jumped as they landed on the cool floor. The metal door was cold enough that it was slightly damp with moisture. 

Outside, there weren't any lights, but he knew the way to Keith's room. He stepped onto the threshold and raised his hand to knock, when he stopped, knuckles barely an inch away from the metal. He looked to where he knew the stairs were, leading up to the roof and to the ocean-

He jumped back as the metal door swung open, revealing Keith in an oversized shirt and loose pants. Lance swallowed his sudden nerves and fidgeted. "I can't sleep," he offered. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, come on." 

Keith's room was sparsely decorated, unlike Lance's. It had a window, and pale moonlight spilled onto the floor in a crisp square. Keith took his hand and led him to the bed, his thoughts still sleep-logged.  
"What's up?" he asked, stifling a yawn. 

"Just thinking too much," Lance replied. "My chest hurts. I miss my family." 

Keith nodded sleepily and pressed a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth. "I understand," he confessed. "About my chest and my family, I guess." 

Lance smiled, taking his hand. His thumb traced warm circles on the back of Keith's hand. "When did you find out?" No clarification was need between them.

He shrugged, laying his head against Lance's shoulder. "When I was thirteen, the summer after my parents died. You?" 

"I was six, I think. I think I realized I was bisexual before I knew I was trans, though. So maybe when I was eight, actually. I remember my little brother told me that I couldn't be a Jaeger pilot because I was, quote unquote, 'a girl', and I threw a huge fit." 

Keith snorted. Their bond pulsed with quiet contentment. "I remember I saw a magazine with Sam Smith on the cover, and it was something about his coming-out story. I read the entire article hiding behind a bookshelf and crying because I wanted so badly to be like him." 

"Aw, did you crush on Sam Smith?" Lance asked playfully, kissing him on the forehead. 

Keith struggled to contain a smile. "Maybe. Who did you crush on?" 

"Chris Wood, big time. Claire Holt too, a bit." 

"Who're they?" 

"Actors from Vampire Diaries, obviously." 

Keith let out a bark of laughter before wincing, pressing his free hand to his sternum. Lance gently pulled him over to lay down beside him, pulling him into a long and slow kiss. Their bond thrummed happily at the intimate contact. 

With a quiet hum, Keith withdrew and pressed his forehead against Lance's, somehow a more deeply intimate gesture than anything else that had shared.  
"When all this is over," he began, his words quietly mulling together in his drowsiness. "I wanna spend my life with you." 

Lance smiled and snuggled closer to him. "When all this is over, I'm gonna get us a cottage on Varadero beach, and adopt a cat for you and a cat for me." 

Keith sighed through his nose, gently drifting off. "Sounds perfect," he murmured, lulling them both to sleep with his slow heartbeat and his mental radio that played crashing waves to supplement the ones outside. 

For the first time since the beginning, they were calm.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A friendly basketball game, plus a dark and previously unknown aspect of Shiro's past is revealed.

"No fair! You barely have to reach for the hoop!" 

Allura grinned, a strip of duct tape hanging off her cheek, the worn basketball twirling on her index finger. "The most beautiful flowers bloom in adversity, Lance!" she replied. Her hair was tied in her signature up-do, and she managed to make her ratty old sports clothes look glamorous. 

_**I'll take Allura. Shiro's easier to guard anyways.**_

Lance scowled and moved to defence, somewhat apprehensive as to guarding Shiro. He fixed the duct tape over his mouth and leaned forward.

Basketball was surprisingly fun. He had played it a bit back in his cadet days, when choosing your Jaeger was a far-off dream and you could tell someone to square up without getting decked. It was much more fun when he could telepathically communicate with his teammate. 

It was good practice too; Allura, Keith, Shiro and him had all fixed duct tape over their mouths to strengthen their ghost bonds. He could hear Keith loud and clear. 

He caught himself admiring the way Keith's shirt stretched across his back, and frantically capped the inappropriate fantasies sure to follow. He heard Keith snort and twitched when he stretched his arms over his head, throwing his muscles into sharp definition. 

_**Oh fuck you.**_

_**Not until later.**_

Lance groaned and, upon realizing that Shiro was coming at him like a tank, squeaked in alarm, leaping like a gazelle to block him. 

Shiro was a talented player, but he did better against shorter opponents, and Lance's height threw him off. In a burst of adrenaline and whip-like movements, he snatched away the ball and was halfway across their makeshift court before he could stop to plan around Allura's blocks. 

Something happened, like a lightbulb flashing behind his left eye, and a stilted image flickered in his brain. It was him, from behind and to the left, struggling to keep the ball away from Allura. Almost on instinct, he snapped his arms over his head, not stopping to plot his trajectory, trusting his spacial reasoning.

He grinned to himself as he heard the ball land in someone's hands and felt the phantom tingling of pebbled leather on his palms. 

Before he knew it, Keith passed the ball back, and the ball sank into the net, rolling round and round against the hoop before smacking against the cement floor. Lance tore off his duct tape and whooped. 

"Ha! _Aspírelo,_ Nebula!" 

Allura and Shiro clapped, sinking all too comfortably into their roles as Squad Father and Mother. Shiro took off his duct tape and wiped the sweat from his face. "That was impressive, both of you."

From her seat on the makeshift bleachers, Pidge looked up from tinkering with a small gadget - possibly a bomb - and adjusted her glasses. "What's the score?" 

"11-6, Nebula," Hunk replied, flipping the score card on the board he held in his lap. 

"Better take a break," Shiro said, picking up his water bottle and chugging a third of it. Allura smiled warmly and patted him on the shoulder. 

"I'm gonna hit the showers. See you." 

"See you." 

Pidge slammed the lid of her gadget shut and fist-bumped Hunk. "Finally!" she shouted, fiddling with the dials and buttons on its interface. "Coran'll be super excited to see this thing working again!"

"What's it do?" Lance asked. 

"It detects the component ratios of Kaiju remains," she explained, standing and trotting down to ground-level. "They can be used for different things, so it's useful to know what you're getting when you pick it up off the ground."  
Just then, the device began to chirp loudly, and Pidge smacked it with her palm. "That's weird. It shouldn't detect any radiation, there's none here-" Her eyes flicked to Shiro's arm, and her entire body stiffened. "Shiro, can you come over here?" 

Somewhat apprehensively, he obeyed, watching as Pidge toggled a dial and moved the detector over his prosthetic arm. It started beeping angrily. 

"What does that mean? What's it saying?" Keith asked. Lance could feel the curls of anxiety ebbing from him. 

"I-I don't know, it could be broken, but it says that there's Kaiju remains in his arm, or at least a very good synthetic-" 

Shiro detached his arm with a sharp click, silencing the others and drawing all attention to him. "I'm taking this to Nyma," he said, stiffly turning on his heel and marching away. 

**********

Nyma was barely fazed to see them all parade through her door and request that she take apart a piece of machinery. 

She bent over the prosthetic and gently pried away the outer layer, piece by piece, completely calm despite the horde of paladins watching her work. Once it was completely peeled away, she pointed to a small rectangular casing imbedded in the forearm. 

"This is the power source. You say there might be Kaiju blood in here?" 

"Yeah." 

She pulled on a pair of thick gloves and carefully pried the battery from its home. "Kaiju blood is toxic to the touch, but I'll be damned if I ever saw a better or more efficient source of nuclear power," she said. "Where'd you get this? No one uses this kind of stuff, unless they're super shady." 

Shiro massaged his shoulder, gazing blankly at the battery. Allura reached over and took his hand. 

"I was serving a year abroad, on my commanding officer's suggestion. I lost my arm when a piece of machinery fell on me, and their medical officer had me signed up for a prosthetic before I knew what had happened." 

Lance didn't have to dig to see Keith's thoughts: like a bright flash, he could see a slightly younger Shiro stumbling into a small apartment, and the accompanying shock of seeing him so different. He yanked himself out of the flashback before he saw anything too private for Keith. 

"What base was it?" 

"Voyage base, Galran territory." Shiro's eyebrows scrunched together. "They were attacked by Kaiju a while after I left, and the wave was so strong that they fell. Millions of people died."

Nyma pried away the smooth grey casing and let a small glass vial roll into the bowl she had prepared. Everyone leaned forward in interest. The substance inside was a dark, shiny blue, and it was three-quarters-full. The bits on either end looked like spark plugs, where they connected to the rest of the prosthetic.  
Nyma picked it up and studied it closely, holding it up to the light. "Kaiju blood. Maybe mixed with an activating agent, like calcium." She stood and walked to what looked like a cooler, opening it with a hiss of liquid nitrogen and setting it gently inside. "If they were experimenting with that kind of stuff, it's no wonder they fell. Kaiju can smell their own from over two hundred kilometres away, and that's how they back each other up. With that much blood, the Kaiju must have thought there was a huge battle and stormed the place." 

"So, that attracts Kaiju?" Shiro asked. "I've had that in my arm for the past ten years?!" 

Nyma nodded solemnly. "It wouldn't normally do so much in a vial like that, but I'll bet that the gears and pistons in there are coated in the stuff. Just enough to send a distress call." 

Something crashed. Shiro had scrambled backwards and knocked over a chair. His eyes were wide and filled with fear as he turned and sprinted from the room. 

Allura ran after him, and Keith squeezed Lance's hand once before following her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a crazy plan.

Lance stayed in the lab all day after that, assisting Nyma in cleaning out the arm. It seemed that the prosthetic was too well-designed; no other fuel would power it properly. 

She contained everything expertly; the rags and gloves she used to clean out the mechanics were placed in an airtight container to trap in the smell, and the arm looked no different when she put it back together. 

He sat motionless for a few hours, staring at the box in which the rags and such were kept, before suddenly inspired. He jumped to his feet with a quiet groan and walked over the computer, booting it up with a jarring start-up melody.  
The Pass was still there, the narrow passage between dimensions crooked and asymmetrical. He enlarged it and read the minuscule notes scribbled down the margin:

_One-way passage_

_Strain of travel collapses the tunnel here - maybe elsewhere_

_Nobody has gotten past this point!_

Lance straightened up and looked to the brain in the tank. It looked much more disgusting up close, he decided as he walked over; he couldn't suppress a shudder as he laid his palm against the glass. 

"How are you doing it?" he said quietly. "How can you come here and kill us, but we can't do the same?" 

The brain did not answer. It merely sat there stoically, as dead tissue tends to do.

"I wonder if I would be able to understand you, even if you could speak." Lance flopped down on a chair and stared at the ceiling. "Maybe it'd just be roars and shrieks." 

He nearly fell out of his chair when the alarm began to sound. The computer showed the Kaiju's profile: not so big, but big enough to be a problem if not dealt with. His stomach turned as he looked at the storage cooler where Nyma had dumped her rags, and his lungs constricted as the beginnings of a plan formed in his mind.

-

Keith grunted as the Kaiju slammed into Cobalt, taking most of her armour with it. Lance bit down on his lip to keep from crying out. 

His satchel sat behind him, housing very dangerous and very precious cargo.  
A quick headcount showed three Kaiju, all class fives. Nothing seemed to keep them from trying to storm the city, and soon it was obvious that three Jaegers wasn't going to cut it, not without a serious reimagining of the plan. 

"Lance, what are you thinking of?" Keith asked tersely, trying to pelt through the Kaiju's armour. 

Lance took a deep breath and let his half-formed plan slip through their Drift. "If we can draw the Kaiju away from the city, maybe we'll stand a chance," he called back, firing on the Kaiju at point-blank range. The monster screeched and careened backwards.

Keith was motionless for a few vital moments, before nodding shakily. "Do it," he said. 

"I'm going to disconnect to plant the bait. Can you handle it?" 

"I'm fine, just do it!" 

Lance slipped out of his harness in record time, his limbs incredibly light after disconnecting from the Jaeger. Keith gasped as the stress of operating a Jaeger weighed down his limbs and pressed down on his mind, a pain that Lance felt in his bones. 

Lance scrambled over to Keith and gently cupped his cheeks, leaning their foreheads together. He let his strength flow to Keith, planting a chaste kiss on his nose. Keith cupped the back of his neck and breathed out jerkily. "Be fast."

_"Lance, you've disconnected! Get back in your harness-"_

Lance ignored Coran and grabbed his satchel, climbing up the emergency exit like a spider. He punched open the hatch and scrambled out into the pounding rain. He took out the vial of Kaiju blood that he had swiped from the lab, his heart nearly stopping as it almost slipped from his fingers. 

Thanking Coran for the suit's gloves, he smashed the vial against the metal, letting the black blood stream down Cobalt's face. He looked up; the three Kaiju were all looking at Cobalt, and they all had murder in their eyes. 

He landed back in the cockpit and hooked himself back up to the Jaeger; he and Keith both sighed in relief: it felt as though a hot spike had been removed from their heads. They took off at a run, drawing the Kaiju into deeper water. The damaged from before was further emphasized when Cobalt's head submerged, the cracks in the hull letting in rivers of saltwater. 

"What's the plan?!" Keith shouted over the racket. "Should we find cover?"

"Head for the Pass, seek cover there!" Lance shouted back, forcing his legs to move faster. Keith's determination flowed into him like an IV, and it made him stronger. 

They saw the glow of the breach long before they fell into the ravine it was set into. Keith took the lead, drawing the sword and stabbing through the first Kaiju to follow them. The Kaiju wailed as they swung it against the rocks and severed its head from its shoulders. 

They took aim and fired a rocket at the second Kaiju, the water making it move unpredictably and harder to dodge. With a howl, the Kaiju went down, sending a shockwave through the water and forcing Cobalt to stumble backwards.  
The water was up to their knees know. Keith punched the sensors on the console, ignoring the frantic shouts of their teammates. "Where's the third? Why didn't it follow us?" 

"Maybe it can't smell-"

Lance and Keith yelped as an unseen force slammed into them, pushing them over the edge. Cobalt's heavy body made quick work of the wall of rubble and boulders blocking the Pass. Suddenly, there was silence. Pidge, Hunk, Shay, Coran and Rax were no longer shouting at them to report. They shared a whimper of panic as the pressure began to crumple the hull, letting in more foul-smelling water. 

The sensors began to beep angrily. The visor sparked to life, revealing a cavern watched over by a massive eye. Rows upon rows of Kaiju watched the Jaeger drift into their midst, and a few monsters were already swimming towards them. 

Keith looked over to Lance in panic. "Cobalt is nuclear. We can set off the battery and escape. We can end this." 

"Disconnecting," Lance panted, releasing himself from the harness and stumbling to the console. Keith placed himself beside him, searching for a way to make it work. 

An alert popped up onscreen: _Automated nuclear override damaged. Manual engage required._

Keith wheezed a breath of panic. "No, no no no, NO!" He punched the console in frustration. 

Lance hurriedly wiped away the tears collecting in his eyes and breathed out shakily, tapping the commands he needed into the mainframe. Oxygen was running low. It was starting to affect Keith too; he could hardly stand. 

"Keith, get in the pod," he instructed, stumbling to the escape pod that swung down over Keith's platform. He primed it for take-off, ignoring his own completely. 

"No, no, I'm not leaving you!" Keith grabbed the edge of the console, his jaw set in defiance.

Lance walked over to him, gently enveloping him in an embrace. He could feel Keith's mind flickering as he struggled to remain lucid. Keith sighed and sank against him. 

Lance lifted him into his arms, ignoring his protests and wading through the water toward the pod. Keith tried weakly to scramble away multiple times as Lance strapped him inside. 

"No, no- I should stay here- let me go, dammit!" 

Lance leaned forward and allowed himself one last lingering kiss, carding his clean glove through his hair. "I love you," he confessed, as earnestly as he had ever said it. "I love you so much." He leaned his head against Keith's once more. "Tell my family that I love them." 

Keith snatched his wrist as he pulled away. His eyes were filled with tears.  
"I love you," he promised. "I'll see you again if I have to dig you out of the ocean." 

Lance smiled and squeezed his hand, before stepping back and launched the pod. He turned away as Keith slammed his fists against the glass and screamed his name. He struggled to hold in a sob as he felt Keith': mind slowly flicker and taper out into dull unconsciousness. 

The console was still beeping, the Kaiju looked ready to tear Cobalt to pieces. He slammed the button that would prime the explosion and waded to the back of the cockpit, pulling down the lever with strength he couldn't explain. The lever slammed into the secondary position with a satisfying crash; the first of three. 

He would have less than a minute to get into his escape pod after the third lever was pulled, and after that he was at the mercy of a nuclear explosion and severe radiation. The lack of oxygen was making him dizzy as he staggered to the pod, the glass closing over him with a sharp hiss. He coughed roughly and gasped for breath all through the pre-launch calibrations. His vision began to spot and waver as his finger travelled to the launch sequence, shaking so badly that he couldn't press the button, or see it, for that matter. 

His lungs began to burn, worse than they had ever burned before, like acid coated his throat. With one last effort, he punched the general area where the button was, hoping he would hit it with the law of averages. 

His last bought of coughing felt like sandpaper against his lungs as blackness spread across his vision like necrosis. As the last of his consciousness ebbed away, a warm tendril gently stroked against his mind. 

He couldn't help but smile.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loose ends are tied up.

"Coran, I-I can't feel a pulse! He's not moving, what do I do?"

"Keith-"

"No, no, he's not dead!" 

"Keith, listen-"

"He's not dead! Lance, wake up!" A dull pain spread of Lance's cheek. "Wake up, WAKE UP!" 

He became aware of a pressure on his chest, and began to cough, the fresh sea air like cool water after a month in the desert. His eyes fluttered open, taking in the overcast sky and Keith's pretty face staring down at him like he was a miracle from God. 

All he could think to say was: "Did I miss much?" 

Keith choked out a half-laugh, half-sob and dragged Lance up into a sitting position, wrapping his arms around him without intent to let go. "Don't do that again." 

Tendrils of each other's minds coiled around each other, blue against red. They pulsed gently together, like a steady heartbeat, promising a second chance. 

**********

Keith was found with stage 1 cancerous tumours in his stomachs; easily taken care of, but the reality of the consequences of what they had done hit them both harder than any Kaiju had. 

Keith looked so much paler after his surgery, the red tendrils of his presence pulsing weakly as Lance entered the room. His blankets were pulled up to his armpits, and his arms were crossed over his chest. 

He sat down next to the bed and gently moved a lock of hair from his face.   
His eyes fluttered open and he focussed on Lance with lucid attentiveness. "Hey." 

"Doing okay?" 

"Fine. Any updates from Rolo?" 

Lance allowed himself a smile. "No new activity. Just one more week, and he'll declare it cold." 

Keith's mouth turned upwards. "That's good to hear. How's everyone else?" 

"Pidge and Hunk are fine, just some phantom pain in their arms. Shay and Rax have relocated back to Balmera. Shiro's adjusting to life with one arm. Voltron's on its way to retirement." 

Keith sighed out of his nose. "So what now?" 

"We're all close to retirement from the Jaeger program. Command is offering us promotions and transfers to the other divisions." 

"I don't think I can handle more military," Keith admitted. "It's starting to press down on me." 

Lance nodded and leaned back in his chair, head tilting back. "The mechanics shop near my parents' house needs workers," he mused. "What do you think of Varadero beach?" 

Warm fingers tangled with his, and he looked down to see wide jewel-like eyes staring directly at him. Keith smiled softly. 

"I like nothing more." 

**********

"Keith!" 

Two heads looked up at the shout. A client of the mechanic's shop stood at the front counter, a dazzling smile set on her lips. Small red question marks emanated from Keith as he moved towards the counter. Lance went back to his work but tuned into their conversation. 

Keith's end of the connection made everything appear red, despite the fact that sound did not typically have a colour. 

"How's my baby, Keith?" 

"We checked your car over and found some problems with your tire pressure, and your back axel is wearing down. Since we're not equipped to repair that kind of thing, I wrote down the name of a shop closer to the city-" he paused as Lance handed him the file in question, sending him a warm brush. 

"The shop's called Petro's, fourth exit towards the city. He should be able to help with your axel," Lance supplied, leaning against the counter. "We just need another day or so to fix up your tires." 

The client nodded and slipped the file into her briefcase, flashing them another dazzling smile. "I must say, you two make a wonderful couple," she told them earnestly. "Have a good day!" 

Lance called after her, "The same to you, Ma'am! Thank you!" He stretched his arms over his head and shifted, resting the small of his back against the counter.

Keith bumped shoulders with him and smiled warmly, tangling their fingers together. The metal adorning their knuckles clinked pleasantly against each other. "I'm glad she thinks so," he mused.

Lance laughed and raised their joined hands, kissing Keith's knuckles and watching their silver wedding bands glint in the afternoon sun. "Couldn't agree more, _Cariño_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ill be the first to admit that this isnt my best work, sorry for the wait!

**Author's Note:**

> So it begins.


End file.
